Witchcraft a.k.a. Witchery. a.k.a La Casa 4, a.k.a Ghosthouse 2 a.k.a Evil Dead 4.
Starring Linda Blair.David Hasselhoff.
Hildagard Knef.
Annie Ross.
Catherine Hickland.
Directed by Fabrizio Laurenti as Martin Newlin.
Produced by Joe D'Amato.
Special Effects by Maurizio Trani.
This was a lot more fun, a less complicated movie vehicle for some fairly corny Italian 1980's gore effects, which are always good for a bit of horror fun and unintentional laughs.
What more could you want for a late 1980's, Italy/US co-production horror film, produced by Lucio Fulci's favourite and possible protege, Joe D'Amato, usually a director D'Amato had already brought us such late night video nasty classics as, "Anthropophagus: The Beast", "Beyond The Darkness" and "Absurd".
Not only those facts should tempt you in, but also the movie includes special gore effects from Maurizio Trani, ("Demons 1+2", "Cut And Run" "Dawn of the Mummy" "Zombie Flesheaters"), but wait though here's the real punch-line and reason why this has got to go on your list of late night movies to see, is it stars, wait for it ... Linda Blair ("Regan" the possessed child from "The Exorcist") and David Hasseloff from "Baywatch" and "Knightrider: TV Series, together in the same film ! What a combo, it's total trash movie heaven and that's what "Witchery" ultimately is, 95 minutes of badly acted gory witch legend silliness. I love it and I think you will to.
So what's it like ..?
Great, it makes absolutely no sense what so ever and is it so haphazardly slung-together with elements of "Rosemary's Baby" and Dario Argento's, "Suspiria" added, if not even blatantly borrowed, you can't fail to see the comparison between the the two films story and some scenes in particular after about 15 minutes. Truly a late Friday night with your mates or missus film, not to be taken too seriously at all, you may find yourself sticking with it right to the end or turning off after ten minutes, depending on your trash movie persuasion.
I love anything European with a tad of rubbery prosthetic special effects and with plenty of blood that's the wrong colour, so "Witchery" was just crying out for a watch and review. There were quite a few of these Italian "spin-off" titles released towards the end of the 1980's, using a title of a recently popular horror film and calling it for example "Evil Dead 4" or "Demons 3" to garner some attention from you at the video library.
What you get is the ghost of a Witch, played by German film legend and one time serious beauty, Hildergard Knef ("The Lost Continent") in her last film role, who's un dead spirit is residing in a large abandoned Hotel building just off the coast of Massachusetts, who appears occasionally to various people only to coax them to their untimely deaths.
David Hasselhoff and Catherine Strickland are a couple of Witchcraft researchers on the island investigating the old disused hotel for any possible signs of the paranormal, they are they without anyone's permission, so when a family of prospective buyers for the hotel turn up, including Linda Blair with the estate agents, Hasselhoff and Strickland try to conceal their whereabouts, unsuccessfully.
A severe storm sets in and they all get trapped on the island in the hotel together, strange things start to happen as the witch has several portals to her demonic lair hidden within the Hotel, and through some tacky visual effects, draws each of the first victims into her evil domain, where they each meet their grizzly ends.
Special Effects high lights to look out for are; someone getting trapped upside down in a chimney and being slowly barbecued from the face down, with bubbling and popping skin burns on offer (one of the better realized special effects in the film). Also someone having their lips stitched together tightly closed, very, very slowly and up-close right in your face, even though you can see the prosthetic join, vaguely, it does go on for quite sometime and is very graphic and nothing seems to have been cut. Another of the characters becomes a victim of the witches use of a voodoo doll and has all their veins bulge up out of their skin and burst right into David Hasselhoff's face and there is also a gory stabbing with a large set of shears which should make you jump and is totally un-telegraphed. Plus a nasty upside down crucifixion, who also later gets set on fire, plus there a several nice touches depicting the witches helpers on the other side and there's a leave you hanging surprise ending. Oooeee!!!
The acting is awful, sometimes dare I say even cringe worthy dreadful, but hey that's not really why your watching is it ? The bad acting and laughable concept should only add to your enjoyment of this brill little Euro Horror, Hasselhof is as two dimensionally wooden as he can be and so is Linda Blair for that matter, in fact by the end of it you'll be shaking sawdust out your turn-ups.
Was available years ago on vhs tape and more recently on a "4 play", (four films on two double sided dvd's) from Prism Leisure on Stax release usually included within a dvd player package. These can now be picked up sometimes in charity shops, car boot sales or on ebay cheaply. If you've never seen any of the classic Italo-Horrors, "Witchcraft" is not a bad place to start, not a classic, just a fairly good example and very easy to get hold of beginners title.
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